Security measures are improving in the mortgage industry, but that is not stopping lurkers from trying to find an alternative route to access real estate information. Reports have shown that with the improvement of security in mortgage cases, lurkers have spread their desperate measure to email scams. Unfortunately, for Notary Signing Agents, this has put more pressure on them to be alert and handle all documents with caution at all times.

When it comes to popular email accounts such as Yahoo or Gmail, these become the weak links in security measures that these cyber scammers hack. What these scammers look for are real estate chains that many notary signing agents are a part of. Having to look out for cyber scammers is definitely putting more pressure on NSA’s to protect borrowers personal and financial information.

As a notary signing agent, there are a few things to look out for to make sure this does not happen. It all begins by staying alert with all exchanges and request. Some of the emails that are produced by these scammers might link onto an email chain about a certain transaction you are in through an email account. Once the hackers are in the email chain, they will send out their fake email that sometimes might appear to be a real email address and person. For NSA’s the red flag should come if you see a request in your email chain asking for copies of documents in the loan package that contain valuable personal and financial information.

As a notary, if you encounter any situation like this, you need to report the breach threat immediately. Make sure you call your company or settlement agent. Failure to do so can lead government regulators to impose fines.

Always make sure you use a strong email password and do not share it with anyone. Another safety feature that NSA’s should use is security features on their smartphones and remember to wipe out data if it is lost or stolen. Review your own security precautions to make sure there isn’t missing information. Make sure that you are shredding your documents. And lastly, do not put loan packages into a FedEX or UPS drop box, take the packages inside and get a receipt for them.